I've installed 4.5 to an old Via C3 machine and want to compile the LXDE destop for the system. I have compiled software in Slackware but recently have been using *.SlackBuild build scripts. I looked in the OBSD FAQ and compile steps were mainly centered on the kernel and core apps.

My questions are
1) Do I need to add any additional packages/configurations to compile in OBSD?

2) Any ./configure conventions I need to be aware of in OBSD? I am assuming all builds go in /usr/local/.

3) I would like to try using OBSD build scripts. Is there a generic build script and where might it be found?

Answer to #1: At minimum, you'll want the system compiler, that's the comp45.tgz file set. If you did not install it when you installed OpenBSD, see FAQ 4.10 for your options. Some applications may require different compilers or assemblers, perhaps a different version of gcc than the "system compiler." If so, these are available as 3rd party packages.

Answer for #2 and #3: There are many considerations for "porting" applications to OpenBSD, and most, if not all, are covered in the several porting guides and checklists associated with FAQ 15. Read it ... all of it ... and read the porting guide and checklist, and review several ports to get a feel for the effort involved.

I looked over the available packages for 4.5 and saw that several packages that are normally included in the LXDE desktop were available (openbox, pcmanfm, gpicview and lxrandr). I will install those packages with pkg_add before attempting to compile the remaining components.

The sourceforge LXDE site indicates that most of the apps will stand alone so it should not be as daunting as building a gnome or kde desktop. I'll look at some the Makefiles in ports.